Next, let’s talk about Beijing’s Swifts. When I was very young, Beijing’s Swifts flew everywhere, and Tang poems also contained many contents related to the swifts. Many scientists in China Bird Observing Society of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) have done related research and found that Beijing’s Swifts know the route of “Belt and Road”. They flew to Europe from Beijing along the “Belt and Road” route and took a brief break in Europe and eventually flew to South Africa. Since the global ecology is integrated, if there are any habitat gets destroyed on the flying way of the swifts, it will bring the serious destruction of the swifts. For example, if the traditional wooden houses in Beijing are gone, the number of swifts in Beijing will decrease dramatically. As we all know, a swift eats hundreds of thousands of Aphid insects a year. If we don’t have swifts anymore, what about those Aphid insects? Use Pesticide! The volatilization of pesticides into the air becomes rain, which results in more than 90% of Beijing’s groundwater being four or five levels of water (the evaluation standard of water quality in China, which 4 and 5 levels of water are both very low quality). Of course, there are many other reasons, but pesticides are also one of the reasons for groundwater pollution. Why do Antarctic penguins have excessive levels of pesticides? No one goes to Antarctica to use pesticides, it’s all because natural circulation causes pesticides spreading to every corner of the earth. We are now studying the swifts, and Peking University has set up a special research group on swift migration. Therefore, the “Belt and Road” we are talking about is actually the “Belt and Road” of ecology, which is in order to protect birds and protect marine life.

Now I want to talk about the story of the Great Bustard. Great Bustard —— the first-class protected animal in China, often flies to the Yellow River in winter, and to Russia and Mongolia in summer. Since they have a very heavyweight, they usually need a long run-up. The Great Bustards are very smart, but they don’t know where the National Protected Area is. Therefore, some Great Bustards flew to the shore of the Yellow River and more than one hundred of them flew in Changyuan, Henan Province. Some people want to hunt and eat the Great Bustards when they saw them. Volunteers from the CBCGDF found the local government to report the situation and took the bustard poachers to the police station. On April 18th, 2016, we issued flags and certificates to the local volunteers and established the “Community Conservation Areas for Great Bustards at Changyuan”. Volunteers showed the certificate to the police station, and the local police began to attach importance to it and set up a sign saying that, Great bustard is a national level protected animal and anyone who harms it can be sentenced. As a result, the Great bustards were protected. Since then, we have a new concept, which called “China Conservation Area (CCAfa)”.

Another kind of marine species is called the Spotted Seal. Spotted seals generally migrate in the oceans between China, South Korea, and Japan. More than 100 spotted seals have been illegally poached this year. Driven by the interests of industrial civilization, many oceanaria uses spotted seals to attract tourists in order to make more money. With such industrial civilization, that is why we are firmly opposed to the establishment of an oceanarium and suggested to demolish the already existing oceanarium. Concerning science popularization, tourism, and ecology, these are the concepts of industrial civilization. Today’s ecological civilization is to enable wildlife to thrive in the wild environment. Especially for some illegal poaching, which some people capture the genitals of male spotted seals; and young seals are now being hunted because they are worth more money. Oceanarium is being built all over the country, and we must stand up against this action. If no one stops it, the spotted seals will be extinct. Eventually, with the extinction of ecological species one by one, human beings will also be extinct.

The Guangxi provincial government banqueted a young entrepreneur from Hong Kong and provide the pangolin cuisine. This entrepreneur felt very honored and uploaded some pictures of the cuisine to his Weibo. Later we found out this and quickly took action to stop it, as well as with some help from public participation. In the end, the person was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, not only for eating pangolins but also found out his many other problems after we reported him. This is what we should do, and this is what we are going to change.

“The Ivory Game” is a film that one of our volunteers participated in filming in Africa, mainly revealing the inside story of the ivory trade. The ivory trade is an extreme manifestation of the development of industrial civilization. The “PUMBAA ECO” refers to several young people visiting the chairman of the African Wildlife Conservation Fund, which has a history of more than 60 years. Our “Belt and Road” is the “Belt and Road” that advocating ecological civilization. It is the concept of spreading our experience and learning from each other and changing the way of life together. At that time, I put forward a concept called “China Conservation Area System (CCAfa)”, and then we invited experts to discuss it. Many experts said it would not work. They say it usually takes 3 to 10 years to establish a conservation area and need to be also approved by all relevant departments. Even the Chinese representative of IUCN told me no because there are six classifications and four standards for conservation areas. In short, our ideas are not workable. However, so far, we have established more than 120 conservation areas throughout the country. From south to north, we stimulate the protection consciousness of the everyone especially young people; we empower them, support them, and unite them, we are all Shennong. We are advocating a new civilization, and facts have proved that we have achieved significant results.

Tiaozini in Jiangsu Province is a great achievement that the CBCGDF and some young people accomplished together. Since there are many industrial development zones in China’s coastal cities, those industrial development zones have led to the destruction of coastal natural wetlands. There are 8 global migration routes, one of it which is through Jiangsu Province, China. The birds come from Australia or Africa and take a break here before flying to Canada or Russia. However, in the area of Tiaozini, the government turned beaches into agricultural land, and then coastal cities turned the agricultural land into industrial land. In this way, the government can earn a lot of money, so that we cannot be able to leave this natural environment to birds. From the first two years, our government has applied to the United Nations for World Natural Heritage, and we have asked that the Tiaozini should be added to the nominated sites of the World Natural Heritage Site. I also found the Executive Secretary of the Ramsar Convention and emphasized the seriousness of the matter at Tiaozini. Later, we received the reply that they would like to apply together with us. Eventually, the Tiaozini passed the World Natural Heritage application with our joint efforts. Protecting wetlands is not just for birds. Everyone knows that turtles lay eggs on the beach, so wetlands are also the delivery room of some marine species. Moreover, wetlands not only provide food for birds but more importantly increase the circulation of marine life. If there is no life in the sea, it will become a stench place that we cannot tolerate. Life is definitely an important part of the ecology.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9631.html

By / Xue Tongtong